The power of an effective teacher is something that many students have been fortunate enough to experience and understand on a personal level. The general consensus of many studies indicates that the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement is teacher quality. AP Calculus and AP Statistics teacher Steven Willott has been spreading his love of teaching to students and educators across the St.Louis area by teaching college math in addition to teaching high school math classes.

“It gives me an idea as to what kinds of instruction the kids are going to have at the college level,” Willott said. “For the math classes I teach at St.Charles Community College (SCC), the material doesn’t translate, but it keeps me on top of things in case I ever have to answer an algebra question here or teach it again. It’s still fresh.”

Willott was influenced by former FHN math teacher Sally Scott to apply for a teaching position at SCC back in 2000. He began teaching Intermediate and Beginning Algebra there in the evenings. He was eventually recruited by the Dean of the Education Department at Lindenwood to teach their Methods of Teaching Secondary Math course, which he taught from 2010-2015.

“Because of his teaching at the college level, Mr.Willott has a far deeper understanding of what he is teaching than you would normally expect,” sophomore Riley Lawson said. “He can explain almost any concept in a simple to understand way and boil down complex topics into easily understandable chunks. Not only this, but because of his breadth of knowledge, it’s not uncommon to see him helping students with homework from many types of math from algebra to trigonometry to calculus.”

Not only does Willott teach students at SCC and FHN, but he also works with other teachers at a “math circle” held at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville once a month to deepen his understanding of different math techniques. This month, Willott was the featured guest at the session. He led the group of teachers with a lesson challenging them to deepen their understanding of translations and permutations.

“There are a lot of great things about Mr.Willott, but I think availability is what makes him such a good teacher,” senior Yuri Takenaka said. “He’s always there to answer questions whether it be before or after class, and his experience allows him to give in depth answers that I wouldn’t get from anyone else.”